“Loud and clear.” Scott leaned in to kiss him. “You’ve given me the best reason possible to make sure I’m around for a very long time.”
“Make sure you remember that,” Justin grumbled.
“I think we made a lot of progress,” Liam announced with a clap of his hands to lighten the moment. “Thank you, everyone. Let’s get busy, we all have work to do.”
“My top priorityis keeping Scott safe.” Justin clearly believed in laying his cards on the table up front. He and Scott were strategizing the next day with Amy, Becca, and Liam, with Travis and Brent on speakerphone.
“Justin,” Scott objected quietly.
Justin shook his head. “We aren’t cops. I’m all for stopping Santoro and getting justice for his victims and kicking the Mob the hell out of town, but not if it costs me you.” He took Scott’s hand. “You’ve already had several close calls. I don’t want to know if the next time’s our unlucky charm.”
Before Scott could object, Amy cleared her throat. “What if we could pull off a strike against Santoro and drastically minimize the risk?”
“What did you have in mind?” Scott asked. He and Justin had debated the topic the whole way to Amy’s shop, where they had set up in the back room for the meeting. Justin knew Scott just wanted to end the danger Santoro and his henchmen posed and send the Mob packing.
Scott understood that Justin had already been through waiting outside a hospital room, praying for good news. He had no desire for either of them to be in that situation again.
Justin had argued for them to leave the matter to the officials, offering whatever assistance they could but staying out of it. Scott pointed out that since Santoro seemed to have put a hit out on him, he couldn’t move freely until the mobster was stopped permanently, whether that was prison or death.
That’s why Justin agreed, reluctantly, to go along with the meeting, hoping they could find a way to resolve the situation without putting Scott at greater risk.
“Now that we know who and what we’re up against, I’ve found some protective magic and amulets that I think can go a long way toward keeping both of you safe,” Amy said. “Especially if we stage manage the last encounter.”
She withdrew two cloth pouches and gently shook out their contents, splaying a pair of medallions with arcane symbols on leather straps onto the table.
“These are bronze, so they shouldn’t bother a shifter’s constitution,” she turned to Scott. “They are spelled to ward off dark magic and supernatural creatures. I’ll put additional protections on you both, which the necklaces will amplify. In case Santoro has any witchy tricks up his sleeve.”
“I’ve been talking with the ghosts,” Becca said. “Especially the spirits of Santoro’s victims and their families. They are very enthusiastic about being spectral bodyguards for the two of you. Like the magic, that gives you a layer of additional protectionthat can’t be seen but can make a big difference when the chips are down.”
“What do you mean about ‘stage managing the last encounter’?” Justin asked, curious despite his misgivings, since it was clear that Scott intended to be involved one way or another.
“We pick the place for Santoro to make an attempt, but we let him think he’s getting the drop on Scott,” Amy said. “We make sure the location is magicked and otherwise protected. Santoro and his witch show up, fail, we have a record of the attempt, and the sheriff gets what he needs to make them go away for good.”
“Not just Santoro,” Brent spoke up from the phone connection. “What I’ve gotten through my network of contacts who are ‘in the know’ about the Mob say that the upper echelons already saw Santoro and his chapter of the gang as a liability. This isn’t the first situation they’ve bungled and brought too much attention to the Family. I think if you can make a solid case against Santoro, the organization will let him sink and close down what’s left of his crew. They’re likely to arrange an accident so he doesn’t implicate anyone else.”
“It won’t get rid of the Mafia, but it roots out one pocket of rot,” Brent continued. “Which is progress.”
“How about the new mine owners?” Scott asked. “There was definitely something they didn’t want us to see enough to kill for.”
“Funny thing about that,” Travis picked up the question. “Some well-placed inquiries and a few minor favors called in, and it turns out that there are all kinds of improprieties on the paperwork and a real mess of back taxes for the Platt Mine. The investors have pulled out, and without their money, the mine can’t reopen.”
“Won’t someone else shady just pick up where they left off?” Justin asked.
“Not when they see the injury and fatality documents that someone paid to suppress,” Brent replied. “Or the more recent accidents. The mine had a higher than usual number of fatalities, even for mining. Workers who didn’t die didn’t stay long.”
“What about the stories about a monster?” Scott asked.
“Sort of true, sort of not. After the mine closed, there was a problem with a dangerous magical creature,” Amy said. “A powerful witch at the time figured the safest place to imprison it was inside an iron mine. He died, but the wards held since the mine wasn’t being worked.Ifthe creature still exists, we’ll find it a permanent home where it won’t hurt anyone.”
“And if Santoro’s witch heard about the creature and wanted to use it?” Justin asked.
“We won’t allow that to happen,” Amy replied.
“And the otherthingswe’ve spotted lately?”
“We think those were summoned by Santoro’s witch to scare the locals and add credibility to the story of the mine monster,” Amy said. “They weren’t a serious threat, just seriously ugly. I’m working with some others at the Institute to send out some ‘creature-catchers’ to make sure they don’t bother the neighbors and get relocated to where they belong.”
“With the mine closing down again, it’s the perfect time for there to be a cave-in that seals it off forever,” Justin suggested.
